


Atom Heart Girl

by valis2



Category: Riptide (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-21
Updated: 2009-06-21
Packaged: 2017-10-07 22:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valis2/pseuds/valis2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Tiffany loves three things.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Atom Heart Girl

**Author's Note:**

> _Tetsuwan Atom/Mighty Atom_ is a Japanese manga/anime series about a boy robot, which was was broadcast in the US during the sixties as _Astro Boy_. For most Americans, it was their first glimpse of anime. _Atom Heart Mother_ is the Pink Floyd album with the cow on the cover. Tiffany is a recurring character in several of my Riptide stories, but you needn't have read them to read this.

Tiffany loves three things.

The first one is easy. Guns, because her father taught her to shoot when she was just a teeny little thing. He put the .22 in her hands first, but it's the pistol that she likes best.

He called her _my little cowgirl_ and set cans on the posts while her brothers paused in their chores, leaning on shovels to watch. She likes the way the grip feels in her hands, sure and strong, the jerk from the recoil thrilling in her fingers.

The second is unexpected. The day of her tenth birthday she got up late and sat in the living room, watching the black and white while eating cereal.

A little boy zoomed on the screen, flying in the sky just like Superman. Her mouth fell open. A robot boy. A robot heart. He was pure and good. He didn't chase people and sit on them or pull their hair or throw their favorite pencils down the well like her brothers did. He was perfect.

He was the most amazing thing she'd ever seen.

She began shirking chores to sit and watch, even though she knew she'd get a thrashing if she was caught. Every morning she would sneak in the living room and watch as Astro Boy battled evil robots and cruelty.

She wanted a robot heart.

She wished for it with every fiber of her being. Wished on the first star she saw at night and the second just for good measure. She wished while she milked the cows at dawn, yawning and blinking, and when she washed the supper dishes. She wished while she brushed her teeth and before she went to bed and after she crawled between the cool sheets.

One night, after fried chicken and mashed potatoes, after the mending, she went to sleep, the theme song resonating in her head. _Everything is go, Astro Boy..._

The bedroom disappeared. The world stretched and reformed, and she was Atom Girl. Her feet were rockets. Her steel skin was cold and smooth. She could hear a cricket chirping in another country; each finger contained the delicious heat of a laser. Numbers flashed through her head, whirling with lacy edges. Her eyes illuminated the dark, searched out evil-doers, looked down a well and found a little girl's pencils.

Within her the power of a hundred thousand horses growled and writhed. She ran across the surface of the moon, her robot legs a blur of motion. She vaulted into a supernova and emerged from the fierce rays intact. In her hands she held the cold core of a comet.

In her chest she could feel her clockwork heart ticking.

She cried when she woke up.

The third is synchronicity. A scholarship brings her freedom from the farm, her beloved robotics taking her to CalTech. The other boys aren't exactly nice, but they don't pull her hair, so it's easy to ignore them. Luann, her roommate, introduces her to lipstick and Pink Floyd. It's not a robot heart, but it is a journey into the stars, and she spends hours listening to the album with the cow on it while she draws plans for retractable eyestalks.

She knows that Luann treats her like another project, and in between reading her psychology texts she sneaks away and signs them both up for a lecture. While listening to Dr. Murray Bozinsky's fascinating opening remarks, Luann whispers a little too nonchalantly in her ear, "Did you know he's a P.I.?"

It might be the world's way of making up for her flesh and blood heart, or it could just be the best stroke of luck ever, but he says "Affirmative" to her offer of coffee. And then another affirmative for everything that logically follows coffee.

He isn't like the other smart boys. He's brilliant, loyal, and sweeter than honey. He doesn't match brains with her or challenge her to endless chess bullshit. He's pure. Good. Real.

And he has a robot.

She thinks she might love the third thing most of all.


End file.
